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Originally Posted by MShaw  I also agree with you Ayoka... I probably shouldn't have corrected her. But how would I go about correcting the situation? Maybe a "leave it" and then a "sit?" Usually I'm prepared for these occurances and already have her in a sit. |
My general reaction when someone (or someone's dog) is interacting with my dog in a manner that I don't see fit (and I can't just walk away) is to put myself physically between my dog and the person (or dog), then I can ask my dog to do something appropriate and easy like "sit".
There was a great word in an article I just read about rudeness at agility trials...in which an ettiquette consultant suggested that when asking someone (in this case another competitor, in your case the assistant) to stop doing something so your dog can relax/function/concentrate you tack on the phrase" I'm sure you understand that...."to your request so it's less confrontational. your's might sound something like "I'm sure that you can understang why having a well behaved rottweiler that doesn't jump on people is important to me with all the bad press rottie have been getting lately so I was hoping that you would mind not giving him too much attention or getting him riled up while we are working on his manners."
I would hazard to guess that people who don't own breeds like rotties or amstaffs never once think about the legal ramifications of their dog's behaviour no matter how innocent those actions may be but we ARE a justifiably concerned group when it comes to how our dogs are seen by the public and maybe that's why someone might think we could lightend up about our dog's behaviour. That being said every dog deserves playtime, when appropriate, so don't forget to have some unstructured fun with Vegas-nothing beats a good game of fetch or hide and seek with your dog!
